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Sunday, 5 July 2015

Pondering the Psalms - Psalm 1

Each Sunday I am going to choose a Psalm and write down some brief thoughts on it.

Today is appropriately looking at Psalm 1 for our first week of this series.

This is one of my favourite Psalms probably helped by the fact that there was a song based on it that we used to sing many years ago and that has helped me to learn some of the verses.

For me this Psalm falls into three parts:

V. 1-3
the man who is blessed

V. 4-5
the ungodly man

V. 6
the comparison of the end of the two men

The Man who is Blessed.
Firstly we know he is blessed because of what he does not do.
Secondly we know he is blessed by what he does.
Thirdly we see what the blessing will be like - good foundation, strength, fruitfulness, good life.

The Ungodly Man.
Firstly we know he is the opposite to the blessed man.
Secondly we know that his future is not good - not with God.

The End of the Two Men.
God respects and recognizes the Blessed man.
The Ungodly man will perish.

There is no sugar coating - we are one or the other and it is not decided by man but by God.

Hence it should be God we are honouring in life and not trying to please man or be liberal or go with the times or be swayed by the majority or indeed be goaded into compromise by the minority.

And how so we know what is of God and what is not of God?
By delighting in God's Word and thinking on it all the time so we can use it as our guide & measuring rod.

It is important we know what the definition of the ungodly is but the one we need to focus on is the man who is blessed.

We need to avoid the pitfalls but most importantly we need to turn ourselves to the word of God.

I love this psalm Sandra and your comments are spot on here. This psalm is so simple and straightforward it leaves us in doubt about the consequences of the path we choose. The blessings in verse 3 really delight me and I love the imagery too "like a tree planted by rivers of water that brings forth fruit in its season. his leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he does he will prosper." Wonderful promises.

This is one of my favorite chapters. My siblings and I memorized it while growing up and I taught to my son when he was younger. This chapter reminds me of the phrase "dynamite comes in small packages" while this chapter is small, it plainly tells what can be expected. Thank you for linking up with Thankful Thursdays.

I love you are working your way through the Psalms. I especially like when you said this: There is no sugar coating - we are one or the other and it is not decided by man but by God. Such a powerful true statement. Psalms1:1-3 are some of my favorites - God is telling us exactly what we need to do to be in His favor and receive His blessing. stopping by from women with intention

The Psalms are so filled with godly counsel and this first one sets the stage for the entire book. I love that you are taking one each week and will ponder it and share with us what God shows you, Sandra. Thankful you are my neighbor at Reflect today. Caring through Christ, ~ linda